Oddball Areonauts

In Oddball Aeronauts you are an airship commander battling with rival ships in epic battles over the Boiling Sea, with no margin for error.

Oddball Aeronauts is a 15 minute card game that you can pick up and play anywhere. In it you control one of two faction as they fight in the air. These two factions consist of the Pirates (a rag-tag bunch of miscreants who specialise in the fine art of sailing) and the Pendragons (the royal air navy which is hell-bent on wiping the pirate scum of the face of the earth).
The aim of the game is to force your opponent to discard all their cards, while keeping hold of as many of yours as possible. At the start of each round everyone announces a skill, choosing from guns, sailing or boarding. After that, you announce the number of cards that you are going to play and figure out who has the biggest score and so will win the round. The scores are calculated by taking the big number next to the skill you chose to play and add the little numbers on all the other cards you choose to play (using the same skill of course). Depending on who got the most points, you also get to activate the 'winning effect' for your skill. So if you win with guns you get to discard two of your opponents cards, if you win with sailing you get to recover two cards, and if you win with boarding you get to recover one card and also discard one of your opponent's cards. After that, you discard all of the cards you played that turn by turning them over and placing them at the bottom of your pile. You repeat this process until one person has no more cards left. The only other things to talk about are tricks and events. Tricks are basically special powers which cards have, for example, where you get bonuses to your skills if your opponent uses a certain skill or where you get to change the order of two cards in your hand. Events, on the other hand, are special cards which make you compare stats with your opponent to determine who gets a advantage or disadvantage.

One of the main reasons that I bought Oddball Aeronauts was because it said that you didn't need a surface to play it on, and I am going on a holiday with lots of long journeys so we can play it in the car.  Another great thing about this game is the artwork, which is absolutely beautiful. The factions are very evenly matched, and all the games I have played have been really close which makes it exciting. However, the rules are badly written and sometimes confusing, which is a shame for such a simple game. Overall though I think that it is a very good game if you don't always have access to a table and are looking for something to play anywhere.